Edgar Wright Shares New Details About His Scrapped ANT-MAN Movie: ‘Scott Lang Was a Real Villain’

As you all know, Edgar Wright he was originally intended to direct the original Ant man film for Marvel Studios. He was actually working on the film in 2006, but ultimately abandoned the project several years later due to “creative differences.”

Wright was eventually replaced by Peyton Reed, who made a fun film. But fans like me would have loved to see Wright’s vision for the film come to life because chances are… it would have been a better film. After all these years, we’re getting some details about Wright’s original vision for the film.

While a guest on The Reel Feedback podcast, the director talked about how his Ant-Man film was different from the film released by Marvel and explained that one of the most important differences was that Scott Lang was a real criminal versus someone who he only went to prison because he tried to do the right thing by exposing his corrupt former employer. He explained:

“Having signed an NDA when I left, there’s not much I can say. I guess the biggest difference (pun intended) in our script was that it was self-contained and didn’t have cameos from other MCU characters (aside from a tease ending) and was much more of a crime heist movie, with robberies and robberies intertwined throughout, a bit like Donald Westlake’s The Hot Rock.

“I think the crucial difference is also that (as in the original comics) Scott Lang was a real criminal at the beginning of the film and not already a 100% good guy. We felt it would have been a more satisfying redemption arc if he had moved on. from criminal to hero. There is much more to say, but I can’t for legal reasons!”

It’s so stupid that Wright can’t talk about a years-old project like this. It’s not like we don’t already know that Wright would have made a better film.

Speaking about the film earlier, Ant man publisher Colby Parker Jr. offered further details by saying that Wright was looking to delve deeper into the film’s heist story and Scott Lang would have a much larger team. He said:

“His film was still a heist film. But remember how we have three pipelines. I think there were about 15 people within the gang, the gang that was going to do the big robbery.

Another major aspect that Wright really insisted on was a story that was completely isolated from the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

“I don’t think any more Marvel characters would have been created. I think it would have been a standalone film. He didn’t want any other Marvel characters in the movie… I don’t think Falcon would have been in Ant-Man.”

This is most likely why Wright didn’t make his film. Kevin Feige he was excited to create this shared universe and Wright didn’t want to play that game with Ant-Man, so he left. Wright was on the right track with this film. When he previously talked about leaving the project, the director said:

“The most diplomatic answer is that I wanted to make a Marvel movie, but I don’t think they really wanted to make an Edgar Wright movie. I was the writer-director and then they wanted to do a draft without me, and having I written all my other movie, it’s hard to keep going. Suddenly you become a director for hire, you’re a little less emotionally involved and you start to wonder why you’re there, really.”

When asked if he had ever seen the theatrically released film, Wright said:

“Do you want to see your ex-girlfriend have sex?” Like, “No, I’m fine.” The closest I came was someone sitting next to me on a flight watching it. And when I saw that the person sitting next to me was going to watch the movie, I thought, hmm, maybe I’ll do some work on my laptop.”

Even though he will never watch the film, Wright explained that the last person you will hear speaking badly about the film is him:

“I will never be forced to speak badly of it, because the truth is that my friends are involved. Paul Rudd is a friend of mine and we are still very good friends. And in fact, I saw him in New York the other week and we had dinner and it was the first time we had a chance to sit down properly after that whole thing. And the one thing I will say about that movie is that I’m glad I got a writing credit, because it kind of makes up for the fact that I worked on the script for about eight years. The second is that I got my friend Paul a part in a major film. And I told Paul – he knows I haven’t seen it – I said, “You know, I haven’t seen the movie and I’ll never watch it.” I saw you in Civil War, and you were the funniest part.’”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s a shame we never got to see Wright’s vision of Ant-Man brought to life.

Via: CBM